Category Archives: MG (grades 2-6)

352A: World’s Scariest Ghost Stories for Kids

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I’ve been trying to locate this children’s ghost stories book for decades now –
I got it through a school Weekly Reader form back in the 80s and the title was something like World’s Scariest Ghost Stories Ever …or something extremely close.

The book’s cover I had had a penciled like art on the front with a huge cloud in the sky with a mean looking old mans face blowing wind down at someone walking up a path.

It has multiple sub titled stories in it all teaching a lesson of some sort by the end.

One story is about a young girl who has 3 Golden Orbs and is made to sleep overnight in a haunted castle and must keep her orb until morning…again that’s the gist of it from my memory.

Another story is about a cook in big house and there’s is a little man who lives in the kitchen in a hole in the wall and makes a deal with the cook I think I believe the title of the story was Darby O Grady?

Yet another story was about skeleton’s skull that keeps crying out in a creepy old house in a room at the top of the stairs I think for “Crust of Bread”.

It was a paperback book I got it from a school Book Weekly Reader and I believe the book was published in the 70s originally as the book did have random art pages in it and the art was old time art with a renaissance clothing stye in the art. I remember in one art page there is a giant, who is a ghost in this big mansion who was chasing the little girl or something and the picture has a Giant in front of a large open shuttered window from the inside and the giant is standing but only has from his waist down and is missing his whole top half of his torso while holding a sword. He has renaissance knee high pants and high stockings like they wore in Benjamin Franklin’s era.

Another pic was from the Cook story where they show the cook standing in the kitchen at the stove area all of the art line illustration like a feather pen or pencil type simple but classic illustration. Only a handful of art pages scattered have art on them I believe its one art page for every sub story or less.

I am dying to find this book and capture a small piece of my childhood. If you can Help me at all in any way so that I can track this book and possibly buy one I would be Eternally Grateful.

Again thank you so very much for all your time and help with this 28 year long search.

351W: 11 Year Old Girl Rehabilitates Horse Named Black Baldwin (Solved!)

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I am looking for a children’s/YA horse story from the late fifties or early sixties.  It features a somewhat broken down horse named Black Baldwin, who was bought/adopted by an eleven year old girl desperate to have a horse.  She rehabilitates him and eventually wins second prize in some kind of horse show event.  The book had small pen and ink drawings throughout.  I don’t remember the book jacket though, I believe it had one.

I searched for a long time thinking the horse’s name was the title of the book.  Either it is and every copy is long gone, or there is some other title.

351U: Please help me find the actual title of a book I thought was named “Honey” (Solved!)

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I am an author/illustrator of books for children, and am so pleased to have been directed to your bookstore in my search for a favorite old book. Loganberry looks like such a cool shop! I’d love to come do an event some day, post-Covid. I am currently locked down in Malaysia where my husband is working at an international school.

When I was a tween I read and re-read a book that I’d really like to find. Probably published in the late 1970’s, it was a Scholastic Book Club paperback. When I first started looking for the book I was convinced that the title was Honey, but after searching for months I’m wondering if my memory is playing tricks on me. Wouldn’t be the first time. 😊

The cover featured a close-up portrait of a blonde girl (whose name was Honey?), wavy hair pulled back. She was smiling, looking up and off to the left.

The story is told from the girl’s point of view. I remember her explaining the pitfalls of her unruly hair, which may be why I felt so connected to her. Ha. Maybe she played tennis? I don’t remember that as well, but… maybe.
Mostly I remember that she met an African-American woman called Van, short for Vanilla, who helped her with her hair and with her problems. Apparently the girl was missing her mother, because Van explained to her that every child has a “mama pie” comprised of many mother figures.

351T: Young boy with red/brown hair and glasses solves mysteries using science

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One book cover includes him on the cover with a lab coat and beakers. The cover may have been blue or purple. It was very block cartoonish. He solves mysteries with a girl who is also on the cover with a lab coat on. They may have had a dog. I believe they solved mysteries in their apartment complex or school. It was a series that may have been Scholastic as I believe I got it from a book fair as a child. The book would have been out in the early 2000s.

351S: Book about a girl with a delightful long string of names (Solved!)

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I am searching for a children’s fiction chapter book that I think I read around 1969 or 1970 when I was in fifth or sixth grade. The primary detail that I recall about the book was that the main character was a girl with a really long name of multiple first/middle names.  I believe she was a pioneer girl, and I definitely am sure that her names were old fashioned type names, such as Samantha, Jane, Emily, Sarah, etc.  though my examples here may not have been the ones. I almost think I remember that the first sentence of the book opened with “My name is  . . . . .” The character’s last name may have started with Mc or Mac.  I have zero recollection as to what the title or author of this book was. I have some vague memory that the illustration in the book showed her as having braids.
I would absolutely love to re-discover this book and share it with my daughters (who are now in their twenties, but would still get a kick out of it!), and I appreciate any help you may be able to offer.

350I: Boy raised in India starts hunger strike with classmates in US (Solved!)

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I remember a fiction book from when I was a kid about a boy who was raised in India by his father. But when his father died (and there was a part where I remember the boy going out on the river to dump his father’s cremated ashes), he ends up having to move to the US to live with his grandmother (I think). He was probably middle school aged? He struggles a bit to fit in, but then when his grandmother’s house ends up being threatened by a new highway going through, the boy convinces several of his classmates to come over to the house and they start a hunger strike that ultimately results in the house being saved. Some of those details may be a little shaky, but that’s more or less what I remember. Thanks for any help!

349Q: The Four Elementals and the Earth Children Raised in World with Magic

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The book was a children’s/YA book published sometime between 2005 and 2012. It was meant to be a quartet. I know 2 came out and I was curious if it was ever finished.
It had two main characters, a boy on earth who was disabled because he born on a world with magic. And a girl who is from earth but was raised in the world with magic, she’s the only one who can’t use magic and is immune to it.
There are evil magicians who can travel between the worlds, but doing so damages the worlds. The two main characters can move back and forth together but it damages the worlds. They’re told the only solution is to seek help from each of four elementals, societies of magic creatures that, if all four can be convinced to help, can make a bridge between the worlds in a safe way. Both of the main characters have to go to their birth worlds or it’s bad for the fabric of the universe or something, and this can only be accomplished with their help. The bad guys use dark magic and want to hunt them down. The boy struggles to learn the magic of his birth world. The first book dealt with the water elementals and the second with the earth elementals, I think. I think the name of the magic world started with an F
There’s a scene where the girl is on earth for the first time while they’re on the run and they go to a McDonald’s and she experiences a soda for the first time. I think her name starts with a K (Kira?)and the boy’s might be Marcus.